Post completed and updated: STIRLING, EDINBURGH, GLASGOW

Hello again! VERY busy last few days. This weekend char/calla and I went to Edinburgh! It was our first trip to the city (besides our flight in) and it was so wonderful!

New addition to the blog: highlights section! I realize that I have been loading you with lots of details, mostly because I am selfishly trying to include every detail so it is recorded, but I know that sometimes you just want the cliffnotes version. Plus you can always read the lengthy stuff later. SO, on with it then.

HIGHLIGHTS:
FRI--> got a time slot for an oncampus radio show, booked flights for oktoberfest in munich, hung out with international students
SAT--> trained to edinburgh, ate really good food, visited the weave mill, walked aimlessly, saw 3 bands at a small venue in oldtown/west end edinburgh, first hostel experience
SUNDAY--> climbed 287 stairs to the top of Scott's Monument, Edinburgh Castle, Tea and brunch at the hub cafe, camera obscura
MONDAY--> radio training session
TUESDAY--> Dum Dum Girls/MGMT in Glasgow

PICTURE ALBUM LINK: http://picasaweb.google.com/106047267595190685755/Scotland2StirlingEdinburgh#


Ok. so for those who want the gory details. here goes.

Friday we slept in a bit and woke up to take a run around the loch. It seemed unreal to go for a jog on campus and for it to be around the LOCH. The weather was nice and i was a beautiful path. We ate lunch and then headed to the atrium to meet cph (a kid from our program). We were going to hike to the william wallace monument but it would't have been open for long enough once we got there so we decided to save it for later. Instead we went straight to the travel agency in the atrium to book a hostel for Edinburgh (for this weekend) and possibly book oktoberfest. While char was waiting with Maik (the really adorable german man at unicorn travel) I went to the media office to hand in our money and forms to sign up for a radio show. And guess what, we got one! Tuesdays from 9-11 am streaming on the internet! Very exciting. There was no audition process. no screening process. no indie kids judging you on your taste in music. just, pay the club fee, pick a time you can fit and and come to a training! Our first show will be Tuesday Sept 28th.----Since I wrote this post the first time we went to the training session for the radio station and I learned that you have 1 week after the airing to listen to the show, and in that time you can illegally download it, but its againts copyright so it would only be for personal use, and for my mom etc. So i am not going to advertise downloading on fb but i'm sure those of you who are dedicated enough to be reading this could be included under 'for personal use.'---

So I went back to the travel agency and we booked a flight to and from Munich for next weekend for oktoberfest. weird that half of oktoberfest is in september. Pretty excited. It will be our most expensive flight hopefully, on account of the short notice, distance, and the fact that its munich's busiest time. After the travel agency we went home to work out some other plans and expectations for traveling this semester. We are thinking of spending either our fall break or our exam study week doing a berlin/prague/budapest week. I can't wait! I have heard amazing things about those three places in particular so I am looking forward to making this plan and sticking to it. Later in the night, randomly, someone told us about some snowboarding thing going on at one of the academic buildings. Turns out they pumped in a bunch of snow onto a small steep slope and let kids do tricks off of industrial materials. Drew a decent sized crowd. There was an MC and big lights and music and food carts. totally random.


Later we rounded up our international student friends and got together to hang out and go into town. It was really fun to dance and hang out. We went to a place called Cape which played one of charlene and my favorite songs by The Darkness. After we ended up at Fubar (the place I hate) because people weren't ready to leave when cape closed at 1. On our way back to our flat on campus, we approached what seemed to be a very flat human. There was a student layin flat out on his back in the grass outside of one of the buildings. We went over because we were curious, and to make sure he was ok. He was able to sit up, but he wasn't really answering our questions. At first it was sort of silly and then we started to get concerned. We found his ID and learned his name was Fraser. Fraser did not know where he was. Fraser was very cold. Fraser was very drunk. So I went to find someone to help us out. At Stirling they don't have desk assistants like at UMD, instead they have porters, which are full time employees who do everything. (Sidenote- our porter is Ann and she is superwoman. she has a drawer full of anything you would want. a lightbuld drawer. a sponge drawer. you name it she can solve it or arrange for it to be solved.) Anyway, I found some porter, and told him there was a very drunk student over on the grass. He had a VERY thick scottish accent, so much so that I understood maybe 10% of what he was saying. and then all of a sudden it just clicked for me and i understood every word. He said something along the lines of, 'Ah yes, fraser. he was one of my residents last year. he thinks this is still his flat. I will call his hall assistant. Oh no he will be fine. Students these days are callin ambulances and wastin their time. Them kids think they're deein, but they're just steamin! Next time you see someone layin drunk like that, just give em a kick and throw a wee bit a grahss on em. save you the hassle.' I took the phrase 'they think they're deein, but they're just steamin' to mean they think they are dying, but they are just drunk! Rather hilarious. But still sort of unsettling haha. Anyway, someone came to claim Fraser and we headed home.

In the morning we threw together some semblance of a weekend bag (I wrote the halfsies blog entry) and jumped a bus to the train station in stirling. We got some delicious breakfast at the cafe while we waited for the train to edinburgh. The tickets were only 8 pounds and included a same day return ticket. Once in the city, we trekked to check in at the hostel which was just north of the center of the city. For anyone planning to travel to Edinburgh, the hostel was called Edinburgh Central. Not as central as we would have wanted but not too far, on Leith and Annandale. Clean. Nice people. It was too early to check in but we packed light enough that we could carry our stuff around no problem and so we just set out to explore.


Earlier on the train we made a list of things we wanted to do based on charlene's guidebook and so we attempted to hit those places first. We walked for hours. And I mean hours. and up and down hills. We went to the castle (closing too soon for us to get our moneys worth), the camera obscura museum (last show was 5 min before we got there- website: http://www.camera-obscura.co.uk/), the Sir Walter Scott Monument to climb the tower (closed in 2 minutes). It was frustrating but we took it as a good chance to explore the city and devise a tight plan for sunday. We did get to check out the Tartan weaving mill however. It was pretty cool. Lots of touristy things but some cool scottish wool sweaters and a working weaving mill and stuff on display. See picasa album for more pictures.


For lunch we ate at a pub. We ordered 3 meals and planned to eat a third of each and pass it around. We waited for what felt like forever for our food. We got a steak and ale pie, which is like a self supported chicken pot pie but with brisket-like meat inside. We also got vegetable tagine, which was made of veggies in a red possibly curry ish sauce. the third was traditional fish and chips with mint pea mash. When the food finally came, we just sort of acknowledged each others hunger and dove in. We finished it so quickly that the woman at the table next to us said 'So you like english food.' We were confused by the question until we realized that we had just devoured all 3 plates in too short of a time period to not be classified as fat americans. oh well. we had a good laugh, paid the check, and left there pretty quickly.


We walked around looking for some of the bars and restaurants on our to do list, which were sort of far away from where we were. On the way to the area near the University of Edinburgh, we ran into a band performing in a square. One drummer, one guitarist and one freaking awesome bagpiper were rocking out and drawing quite a crowd. They were so fun to watch and passionate. I took a bunch of pictures, but this one you can see all of them.

The first place we tried closed, but we stumbled on a place called bannermans. Turns out they were having a line up of 3 "best of scottish indierock" bands play later that night so we left to get some food somewhere else and planned to return later for the show. I assume we must have done something between our americanlike feast and our quest for more food, but honestly i can't remember haha. Anyway, we killed some time at a place called Under the Stairs. It was a cozy lowlit place below street level with comfy chairs and pretty people. We got baked brie and a drink. Char got Fruli, a strawberry beer, and Calla and I got Viru, an estonian beer. They had some cool candles in big glass mugs.

We left around 745 because doors were at 8 and we didnt know how true to that time they would be or how packed it would be. Turned out that was really loose, because the didn't go on until around 10 and there were very few people in the room. We killed some time by talking and ordering a guiness and sharing a panini three ways. I made friends with a girl at the bar who was actually the girlfriend of the bassist in one of the bands. She was nice and gave me the low down on the surrounding area.

The three bands playing were: Scrap Brain, some shitty band I never found out the name of, and Deco Arcade. Scrap Brain was excellent. At first I was skeptical, but then I was diggin it. The band was made up of a pretty talented drummer, a bassist, and a rockstar frontwoman vocalist. She clearly had been practicing her moves in her bedroom, but she was so rockstar. They had great energy. Reminded me of The Gossip a bit.

The second band was so horrible i wont even go into it. The third band, the one that the girl was associated with, was good at what they did, I just didn't happen to be into it. It was sort of Linkin Park/Story of the Year. Interesting about the show: It was in a room off of the bar which was clearly just for shows decorated with cool posters and vinyls etc on the walls and ceiling. It was pretty small but with very few people in the audience. Also interesting was that when we paid the entrance fee they asked which band we wanted it to go to. I of course just said the one that the girl at the bar was associated with, but later tried to change my answer because I found out they weren't just taking a survey, but allocating the entrance fees proportionately.

After the show we walked through the Univ of Edinburgh area, found some late night chicken shawarma, and made the long trek back to the hostel. When we got there there were 2 people sleeping already so we went downstairs to get out some energy. We gave our families a call, which was soo great because I caught my family at Yom Kippur so they were all together. When we went upstairs we had a serious case of the giggles, but finally fell asleep. The hostel was really nice and hotel like. There were only 2 other people in our room (besides the 3 of us). I had a top bunk.

--SO it's Tuesday night now and I went back to finish this post and found so many errors. I was half asleep when I was writing before. So update from Saturday night on activate:

Sunday morning we woke up around 10 and checked out, and walked around to find a bite to eat. Pretty much the only place open with breakfast was this italian place. The service was TERRIBLE to the point that I think they were hating on us because we were Americans. We ordered some filled hot rolls, which were basically breakfast sandwiches. Not bad, but once again the service was just absolute crap. We left sort of pissed but walked it off on our way to the scott monument.
It was 287 steps to the top, but worth an awesome view of the city.

Walter Scott was an influential scottish novelist and poet (he wrote Ivanhoe) and when he died they erected a giant memorial in his honor. The tower had 64 characters from his stories incorporated into the architecture.

After the monument we ventured to the Edinburgh Castle, which was pretty close by, but up a giant hill (obviously, no one builds a castle somewhere convenient to get to). The castle was pretty castley. We walked around, read some information about it's history, took some pictures, did a free whisky tasting in the gift shop, saw the crown jewels, and an exhibit on prisoners of war. What I learned: Scotland had a few too many infant kings/queens, and there was a pet cemetery for the deceased dogs of soldiers.

We left the castle for some food (who's surprised) and ended up at the Hub. It is a converted church into the center for cultural things in edinburgh. they have a banquet hall and a concert hall and a little cafe where we had tea and a bite to eat. Probably the best food so far. The 3 of us split 2 dishes: 1-Salmon and gruyere fritata 2- chorizo and potato in some delicious sauce with a poached egg on top. WHOA. really delicious.

The meal gave us enough energy to hike back up the royal mile (the street coming down from the castle that royals used to trot down for ceremonies-now some what of a tourist trap with lots of shopping and food) to Camera Obscura. Camera obscura is a 5 floor museum of optical illusions. The main event is a giant pinhole camera that allows you to project a live view of the city onto a concave projection slate in a dark room. Camera obscura means dark chamber. basically, there is a mirror at a 45 deg angle at the top of a tower that is covered on 3 sides, and picks up a reflection of the city below, and travels through a series of lenses until it reaches the projection table in a dark room. The mirror can be rotated to see a 360 live view of the city, with moving people and everything.
If you can read the sign in the photo above it may be a better description. But that's not where the awesomenes ended. There were 5 floors of awesome optical illusions and interactive fun. There were those static columns where if you put your hand on them the lightning comes to your hands, mc escher sketches and magic eye pictures (which i finally figured out how to do it-all these years i was seeing an inverted image. finally did it right). There were also cool things with lights and mirrors, including an infinity room (a room with lights and mirrors on both sides so it looked infinite, a vortex tunnel (a room that is just a metal bridge going through the middle of a cylindrical room that rotated around you. almost barfed), and a room that when shown on a tv made one person look tiny and the other like a giant. So much fun.

We felt pretty accomplished and so we head to the train station for the return trip. The night before someone confused our tinfoil wrapped chicken shwarma for something called tablet, which she recommended we try, so we bought some for the ride home. turned out to be like really intense fudge (the only 3 ingredients were sugar, condensed milk, and butter). Too intense for me but fun to try because it's scottish. While on the train home all three of us fell asleep at some point, and woke up 5 minutes before our stop feeling like we had entered some sort of 4th dimension. Somehow it felt like time had disappeared. We all could have sworn we were only on the train for twenty minutes when it had been 40.

When we got back to campus we went to an information session put on by our favorite place, unicorn travel, and went home to eat some dinner. I tried muligitawny from a can. Later I video chatted with my brother and mom (and kitty) and passed out.

Monday morning we had our first ENV5t5 lecture. It was about experimental techniques. Once again, nothing terribly new, but all very well organized and well explained. We went back home for our usual turkey cheese avocado sandwiches and kept busy until 7 when we had a training session for the radio station. The people were really nice and welcoming. It sounds like it will be a fun time. They only broadcast on the internet so the rules are less strict. Char Calla and i are looking forward to meeting people and doing the show. Wednesday they are a having a 'give it a go session/party' which should be fun. After the meeting we made some dinner and watched the first half of Watchmen with 2 other study abroaders. It was great so far, but we got tired to we split for bed and promised to finish it soon.

Today (Tuesday) we had 1 lecture (would usually have 2 but it was cancelled this week), came back for lunch, and then got ready to go to GLASGOW for DUM DUM GIRLS/MGMT show. We got a train ticket for 6.90 and head out around 3. Once there we made our way to the place where we had to pick up the tickets and continued towards the venue. We stopped at a mcdonalds on the way because we figured we should try it once. Slightly different selection, slightly fancier inside, but still sort of gross. However, I got a mint mcflurry with pieces of aero bar (my favorite candy here) blended into it. Now thats a mcflurry. Jason told me they were way better than american mcflurries. So right. So worth the tummy ache later. We made it to the venue and waited in line for a little over an hour. Once inside we made it to the second row of standing people in front of the stage. They made me check my camera because it was considered a professional camera and therefore wasn't allowed inside. The venue was pretty cool. It's called the barrowlands. Just a big high ceilinged room with a stage in the front. The show was pretty good, but a lot of annoying teenagers pushing and spilling things on us. I like MGMT but not that much, so we ended up leaving the overwhelming front center for the wings. The openers, Dum Dum girls were pretty bad. They had sort of a beachboys surf rock vibe (because of the clean drums and effect on the guitar) but most of their songs were similar to their other songs and were like 2 chords with a repeating drum beat and lyrics on loop. Plus one of the girls looked miserable.

We made it out in time to catch the train back so we didn't have to pay for another ticker (round trip for 6.90 is pretty sweet). And now here I am. Finally finishing this blogpost. Next step: putting pictures on facebook.

one other random thing: their library is really nice. apparently it is all new. All the books seem really accessible (because they aren't strewn across 9 libraries on 3 campuses like at umd) and the technology is all pretty new. they have these awesome 'pods' that are circular couch benches with a huge touch screen computer in the middle. It's cool that I am actually looking forward to using the libraries.

That's all for now. Oh and i figured out the proper goodbye:

Cheers!
-Amanda